Deforestation from Palm Oil Plantations in Papua. Mighty / Flickr
By Mikaela Weisse and Katie Fletcher
This edition of Places to Watch examines forest clearing detected between Nov. 9, 2017, and Jan. 31, 2018 in Indonesian Papua, Cameroon and Brazil. Due to occasional cloud cover that can obscure satellite recognition, some loss may have occurred earlier.
<p><strong>Oil Palm Plantation Encroaching on Primary Forest in Indonesian Papua</strong></p><p><img alt="</p data-verified=" redactor="" src="http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/uploads/places-to-watch-1_0.png"></p><p class="caption">Oil palm stretches out to the horizon in what was previously primary forest in the PT Bio Inti Agrindo concession, owned by POSCO Daewoo. Photo credit: Mighty.</p><p>Fears that the forests of Indonesian Papua would be the <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/palm-oil-versus-paradise-in-papua/a-19518922" target="_blank">next frontier</a> for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/palm-oil">oil palm</a> expansion are coming true, according to new satellite imagery analysis. Papua is home to more than a third of Indonesia's remaining intact forest and experienced <a href="http://bit.ly/2papSwo" target="_blank">unprecedented tree cover loss</a> in 2015 and 2016. GLAD alerts since November show <a href="http://bit.ly/2FGe2jU" target="_blank">further forest clearing,</a> most likely for oil palm.</p><p>According to a report by the NGO awasMIFEE!, various Indonesian government agencies have <a href="https://awasmifee.potager.org/uploads/2012/03/mifee_en.pdf" target="_blank">actively promoted</a> large scale-agricultural investment in southern Papua. This has resulted in several new oil palm projects, including investment in the <a href="http://bit.ly/2HL6zl8" target="_blank">PT Bio Inti Agrindo (PT BIA)</a> concession highlighted in the <a href="http://bit.ly/2FCryFq" target="_blank">previous edition of Places to Watch</a>. PT BIA Block II has resulted in more than 20,000 hectares (49,500 acres) of tree cover loss since 2013, most of it in primary forest, <a href="http://bit.ly/2GbcFNA" target="_blank">with around 2,300 hectares (5,580 acres) affected</a> since November, according to GLAD alerts.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzQ4MTQzNS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzE3MzQzOH0.85HcpBW_fDzFR9SI9MNwR-8fBh5T4mJCA53R4uViAlI/img.png?width=980" id="22cc7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a18cc1a6e73fc28e3fe6bdc37a89a728" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
</p><p>However, this loss of primary forest has sparked opposition. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/norways-wealth-fund-expels-posco-daewoo-intl-over-palm-oil-holdings/" target="_blank">Norway's central bank divested</a> from PT BIA owner POSCO Daewoo in 2015 over <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a> concerns in the concession and in June 2017, Mighty Earth sent out a letter <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/buyers-beware-posco-daewoos-deforestation-palm-oil-is-ready-for-international-markets/" target="_blank">warning palm oil buyers</a> that purchases from POSCO Daewoo would violate their No Deforestation and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) commitments. <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/mightychart-2.pdf" target="_blank">More than 20 companies</a> including Clorox, Colgate Palmolive, IKEA, L'Oreal, Mars and Unilever have said they will exclude POSCO Daewoo from their supply chains. In December, Boots, the UK's largest drugstore retailer, <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/posco-daewoo-dropped-uk-chain-announces-moratorium/" target="_blank">dropped its retail partnership</a> with POSCO Daewoo. In response to this pressure, POSCO Daewoo <a href="https://www.politico.eu/pro/uk-drugstore-boots-cuts-ties-with-major-palm-oil-producer/?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&utm_campaign=6654f793d9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_10959edeb5-6654f793d9-189962025" target="_blank">reportedly instated</a> a temporary moratorium on new clearing, and since the start of 2018, there have been less than 10 hectares (25 acres) of GLAD alerts detected within the concession.<br></p><p>GLAD alerts also detected thousands of hectares of recent clearing in Papua within <a href="http://bit.ly/2HQ2ETY" target="_blank">PT Agrinusa Persada Mulia</a>, a subsidiary of the Ganda Group, and <a href="http://bit.ly/2HN8N3D" target="_blank">PT Central Cipta Persada</a> oil palm concessions.</p><p><strong>Cameroon Rubber Plantation Nears Protected Habitat of Elephants, Gorillas and Leopards</strong></p><p class="caption"><img alt="<p data-verified=" redactor="" src="http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/uploads/places-to-watch-2_0.png">Clearing within the Sudcam plantation. Photo credit: Vivian Breckenridge</p><p>A rubber plantation company in Cameroon is expanding its activities toward the edge of the Dja Wildlife Reserve <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/407" target="_blank">UNESCO World Heritage Site</a>. GLAD tree cover loss alerts <a href="http://bit.ly/2FN7xA7" target="_blank">show nearly 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres)</a> of tree cover were affected from November 2017 through January 2018, including previously unfragmented intact forest areas. In total, more than 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres), an area about one-fourth the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Florence" target="_blank">size of Florence, Italy</a>, has been cleared since 2014. The UNESCO forest area is home to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a> such as chimpanzees, forest <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/elephants">elephants</a>, western lowland gorillas, and a nearly extinct leopard species, with neighboring villages home to around <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/Global/africa/Forests/Publications/2-Sudcam%E2%80%99s%20Environmental%20Impact%20Assessment.pdf" target="_blank">9,500 people</a>.<br></p><p>The rubber plantation is owned by Sudcam, a subsidiary of the world's largest natural rubber company Halcyon Agri Corporation, with a China-based parent company Sinochem International. <a href="https://www.cifor.org/library/5474/socioecological-responsibility-and-chinese-overseas-investments-the-case-of-rubber-plantation-expansion-in-cameroon/" target="_blank">According to a CIFOR report</a>, Sudcam has come under scrutiny because the plantation expansion involves clearing of "some 40,000 hectares of natural forests" buffering a park with rich <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a> and protected species. The report notes that while the project has the potential to create needed employment in the areas, many of the communities are not eligible for compensation for loss of customary land to the plantation, as Cameroonian expropriation laws do not recognize customary rights. <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2016/whc16-40com-7B-en.pdf" target="_blank">UNESCO</a> authorities and <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/News/news/UNESCO-fails-to-protect-Cameroons-Dja-Reserve-from-multiple-threats-including-the-Sudcam-rubber-plantation/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> have raised concerns over the project's impacts on community rights and the Dja Wildlife reserve.</p><h3>Brazil's Brutal 2017 Fires Cause Massive Forest Degradation</h3><p class="caption"><img alt="<p data-verified=" redactor="" src="http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/uploads/places-to-watch-3_0.png">Fires in Araguaia National Park visible through satellite imagery. Photo: Planet Labs, Inc.</p><p>Brazil's <a href="http://www.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/estatistica_paises" target="_blank">fire season</a> in 2017 was among the most severe since fire detection began in 1999. Analysis suggests that more and more of these fires are <a href="https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/brasil-termina-2017-com-numero-recorde-de-queimadas-desde-1999-22204556" target="_blank">happening in natural forest</a>, in areas that normally would only burn very rarely. In the Amazon, where nearly all of these fires <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/28/brazil-forest-fires-deforestation-september-record-amazon" target="_blank">are manmade</a>, officials attribute the increase in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">fires</a> last year to a lack of law enforcement for fire use. Fires are also linked to forest degradation, which makes forests <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/record-amazon-fires-stun-scientists-sign-of-sick-degraded-forests/" target="_blank">more vulnerable</a> to future fire, and deforestation, which <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2003JD003494/full" target="_blank">causes local drought</a> that makes fires more likely.</p><p>GLAD alerts were detected in several forest areas affected by fire in recent months, including in the <a href="http://bit.ly/2FBoKw0" target="_blank">Xingu</a>, <a href="http://bit.ly/2HrN6EY" target="_blank">Kayapó</a>, <a href="http://bit.ly/2FFI47H" target="_blank">Xikrin do Rio Catete</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/2FEHmaq" target="_blank">Arariboia</a> Indigenous Reserves. The fires occurred primarily in August through October of 2017, but were only recently detected by GLAD alerts due to cloud cover and smoke that blocked previous satellite detection.</p><p><strong>Brazilian Parks Left Vulnerable as Unprecedented Fires Eat Away at Forest Edges</strong></p><p>In Brazil's Araguaia National Park and neighboring Cantão State Park, GLAD alerts since November <a href="http://bit.ly/2G4092y" target="_blank">detected around 17,500 hectares (43,000 acres)</a> of forest affected by fires. Though <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/roads/2015/06/bananal_island_a_conflict_between_park_rangers_and_indigenous_people_threatens.html" target="_blank">disputes remain</a> over the boundaries of Araguaia, park staff estimate that 400,000 hectares, or <a href="https://g1.globo.com/to/tocantins/noticia/brigadistas-desistem-de-combater-incendios-e-deixam-parque-nacional-apos-70-da-reserva-ser-devastada.ghtml" target="_blank">around 70 percent</a> of the park's total area (forest and non-forest), burned in the 2017 fire season. According to George Georgiadis, executive director of local NGO Instituto Araguaia, the fires in the area occurred due to a "perfect storm" of conditions—lack of rain, low humidity and strong winds—making fires that would normally be easily suppressed uncontrollable.</p><p>Araguaia and Cantão sit at the transition between Brazil's forested Amazon and savannah-like Cerrado biomes, creating a <a href="http://arpa.mma.gov.br/en/parque-estadual-do-cantao-in-the-state-of-tocantins-to/" target="_blank">unique ecosystem</a> with biodiversity from both biomes. The 2017 fires mostly burned in the understory and damaged leaves and undergrowth, which will recover quickly. However, the drier forest edges experienced more intense burning, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-tropical-ecology/article/fire-as-a-largescale-edge-effect-in-amazonian-forests/F6DAAF3B48F920615CA6B54FC7D5704A" target="_blank">leaving them more vulnerable</a> to repeated burning from which they may not recover. Georgiadis noted that as these fires "eat away at it [the forest edge], the landscape becomes more flammable."</p><p><strong>A Time to Take Action</strong></p><p>Government agencies, private companies and local people have the power to stop deforestation before it is too late, and readers like you can help this process by drawing public attention to these areas. We encourage you to share these places, including on social media using #PlacesToWatch.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="288cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9QHZMF1576662748"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="957415447120564224" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Climate Change and Deforestation Threaten World’s Largest Tropical Peatland https://t.co/IXc0oRAeai @WildForests @NPCA @SkyRainforest</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/957415447120564224">1517100605.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Places to Watch is an initiative that uses weekly <a href="http://www.glad.umd.edu/projects/global-forest-watch" target="_blank">GLAD alerts</a> on Global Forest Watch to spot changes in forests around the globe and identify the most consequential cases of recent deforestation.</em><br></p>
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By Nicole D'Alessandro
Worldwide, a trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year, nearly 2 million each minute. Usage varies widely among countries, from more than 400 a year for many East Europeans, to just four a year for people in Denmark and Finland. Plastic bags, made of depletable natural gas or petroleum resources, are often used only for a matter of minutes. Yet they last in the environment for hundreds of years, shredding into ever-smaller pieces but never fully breaking down.
<p>Over the last century, plastic has taken over the planet. On the one hand, plastic seems a miracle material, with beneficial uses ranging from medical devices to making vehicles lighter and more fuel-efficient. On the other hand, it is a curse, allowing for the seemingly cheap mass production of disposable materials that fill up landfills, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/21/5-gyres-plastic-trash-pollutes-oceans/" target="_blank">cloud the oceans</a>, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/08/06/the-danger-of-plastic-bags-to-marine-life/" target="_blank">choke wildlife</a> and sully vistas. Filled with additives that lack a safety record, plastics have been linked with a slew of health concerns, including certain types of cancer and infertility. While plastics can be used and recycled wisely, the majority of those produced are neither. Perhaps no other item symbolizes the problems of our throwaway culture more than the single-use plastic bag.</p><p>Given the multitude of problems associated with plastic bags, many communities around the world have attempted to free themselves from their addictions by implementing bag bans or fees. The oldest existing bag tax is in Denmark. Passed in 1993, this regulation affected plastic bag makers who paid a tax based on the bag's weight. Stores were allowed to pass the cost on to consumers either in bag charges or absorbed into the prices of other items. The initial effect of this system was an impressive 60 percent drop in plastic bag use.</p><p>One of the most well-known <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/01/23/must-see-doc-trashed/" target="_blank">bag measures</a> is Ireland's national bag tax, adopted in 2002. It was the first to charge consumers directly, starting at a rate of 15 euro cents (20ȼ) per bag. Within five months of the measure's introduction, bag usage fell by more than 90 percent. Litter was greatly reduced as well. Over the years, bag use started to creep up, however, so in 2007 the charge was increased to 22 euro cents, and in 2011 the law was amended with the aim of keeping annual bag use at or below 21 bags per person. Frank Convery of <a href="http://www.ucd.ie/" target="_blank">University College Dublin</a> calls Ireland's plastic bag levy “the most popular tax in Europe" and believes that it would be politically damaging to remove it.</p><p>Indeed, many communities looking at plastic bag reduction measures hope to emulate the Irish success. Other European countries where consumers pay for plastic shopping bags—either through law or voluntary initiatives—include Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Latvia and the Netherlands. Throughout the European Union, member states will soon be required to take measures to <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/15/eu-to-ban-hazardous-plastics-by-2020/" target="_blank">reduce plastic bag use</a> 80 percent by 2019.</p><p>Reducing the amount of plastics in the marine environment has been a major driver of bag regulations in Europe and elsewhere. In a memo on its bag reduction proposal, the European Commission notes that “in the North Sea, the stomachs of 94 percent of all <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2012/07/09/marine-litter-birds/" target="_blank">birds contain plastic</a>. Plastic bags have been found in stomachs of several endangered marine species, such as green turtles, loggerhead turtles, leatherback turtles, black footed albatrosses and harbour porpoises." In sum, “at least 267 different species are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine litter." The desire to protect the whales that migrate off the coast of Tasmania led to Australia's first local plastic bag ban in 2003. Now half of Australian states and territories ban plastic bags.</p><p>Beyond the seas, the reasons for taking action against plastic bags vary from malaria outbreaks associated with bags collecting water in Kenya to sewers clogged with plastic bags exacerbating flooding in Bangladesh, Cameroon, and the Philippines. Cattle choking on plastic bags gave impetus for bag regulations in Texas ranch country and in Indian communities concerned about the sacred cow. In the capital of Mauritania, an estimated 70 percent of cattle and sheep deaths are from plastic bag ingestion; in the United Arab Emirates, the concern is for camels. <a href="http://www.earth-policy.org" target="_blank">View</a> additional details on anti-plastic bag initiatives around the world.</p><p>The world's strictest anti-plastic bag implementation strategy may be in Rwanda. Since a ban went into effect in 2008, airline passengers arriving from outside the country have recounted being forced to surrender plastic bags on arrival. It is unclear, however, how successful the ban is at reducing overall bag use, particularly in less urban areas, because of an active black market for plastic bags. In South Africa, where plastic bags caught in bushes and trees had become so common that they were called the national flower, a ban on the very thin non-biodegradable bags that tear readily and easily blow away went into effect in 2003. Thicker bags are taxed. Botswana's plastic bag fee, which began in 2007, is credited with cutting bag use in half at major retailers. All told, at least 16 African countries have announced bans on certain types of plastic bags, to varying levels of effectiveness.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy82NDU1MzYwL29yaWdpbi5qcGciLCJleHBpcmVzX2F0IjoxNTk5ODY3MjQ4fQ.fExkgOd4lD4llQnhpycRoWRDEzhAKIDxGFIODa31p1w/img.jpg?width=980" id="7b693" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5f05c266e805e9b98b661a7b6e13f8f6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p>In China, where plastic bag pollution was widespread, a few cities and provinces tried to introduce policies to limit bag use in the 1990s, but poor enforcement led to limited success. Before Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympic Games, a national law went into effect banning extra thin bags and requiring stores to charge a fee for thicker bags. The Chinese government reported that bag use has dropped by more than two-thirds, although compliance appears to be spotty. A number of cities in Southeast Asia, the source of many of the world's plastic bag exports, have come up with legislation to reduce bag use.</p><p>In the U.S., <a href="http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2014/update122" target="_blank">133 city- or county-wide anti-plastic bag regulations</a> have been passed. Bag bans cover one of every three <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/04/100th-plastic-bag-ban-passed-california/" target="_blank">Californians</a> and virtually all <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2012/05/15/hawaii-becomes-first-state-in-the-u-s-to-ban-plastic-bags/" target="_blank">Hawaiians</a>. Chicago's city council voted for a bag ban in April. Dallas and Washington, D.C., are among the handful of jurisdictions that charge 5-10ȼ for each plastic or paper bag; in both cities, charges were instituted to reduce the number of bags in local rivers. In Canada, much of the anti-bag action is voluntary, with a number of retailers participating. The provinces of Ontario and Quebec have each halved their plastic bag use through a variety of measures, including store incentives for using reusable bags and retailer-imposed fees. Liquor stores in Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia have tossed out the plastic bag for good.
</p><p>Latin America also hosts a number of initiatives to reduce plastic bag litter and waste, including bans in the Chilean cities of Pucón and Punta Arenas and in the states of Buenos Aires and Mendoza in Argentina, to name a few. Carryout bags in a couple of Brazilian states are required to be biodegradable. São Paulo state banned free single-use plastic bags starting in January 2012, allowing heavy reusable or biodegradable bags to be sold for 10ȼ, but the measure was removed by an industry-supported court injunction, despite the backing of the supermarket trade association. Similarly, Mexico City banned plastic shopping bags in 2009, but, under pressure from plastics manufacturers, the measure was replaced before enforcement began with a recycling initiative—a common tactic used by industry groups around the world against stricter bans or fees.
</p><p style="">Plastic bags clearly have a cost to society, one that is not yet fully paid. Reducing disposable bag use is one small part of the move from a throwaway economy to one based on the prudent use of resources, where materials are reused rather than designed for rapid obsolescence.</p>
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